Devonshire January February 18

The COUNTRYMAN
CHRIS TAYLOR
The COUNTRYMAN
Chris lives with his wife, Brianne,
in north Devon at the confluence
of the Mole and Bray Rivers.
Raised on a farm, with a degree in
Agricultural Zoology, Chris moved
into Farm Management and more
recently into Estate Management
and Consultancy. Over the past
50 years his passions cover all
aspects of the countryside, wildlife,
conservation,agriculture and
country pursuits.
A bumper
harvest of
Pumpkins
Photos copyright C. Taylor
Baby, it's cold outside...
Spring beckons
The shortest day of this winter has
gone and two months of winter
remain, so far we in Devon have
missed any disruptive snowy or
frosty weather but we have had
more than our share of rain. It is
unusual for much snow before
Christmas and the last time that
occurred in North Devon was
early December 2010. That year
almost a foot of snow fell and the
few ewe lambs I had struggled to
move around and just trampled
one small area of their field and
that's where they stayed until the
snow receded.
I recall after Christmas of 1983
or 1984 as being particularly
difficult when trying to make a
living farming. Plenty of snow
and much worse penetrating
cold, even the tractor diesel froze
whilst driving along, this made
life extremely hard. The small
streams froze and we relied on
these for water for the ewes. We
had to resort to using a mattock
( a cross between an axe and an
adze ) to dig frozen swedes to feed
hundreds of sheep. These swedes
were their only water source. It
was this or nothing, but the sheep
scour badly, fed on frozen swedes.
The farm I occasionally helped on
had one running tap working in
this cold period that lasted some
6 weeks. Keeping yourself warm
all day was also a challenge, as
many layers of clothes as possible.
My neighbouring farm, like many
others just poured their milk away
as no tankers could get to their
farms but I do remember how
all the community helped one
another out to get by.
Wildlife suffers in extreme winters
and in those winters of the early
1980 starving fieldfares and
redwings would follow me and the
sheep to the trough in expectation
of any small morsel of food.
So far this winter hundred of these
birds have been feeding in the
Suckling lambs - bottle and teat
orchard on the many dropped
apples and I even have many bags
of apples stored just in case of
worse to come. If you feed your
garden birds leave any old apples
and even the peelings out and see
what comes along.
There are good numbers of
woodcock and snipe around
this winter. Take a walk along
any estuary or over any wet and
rushy farmland and you are sure
to frighten up the later. There
are two types of snipe that occur
in Devon and unless you are a
10
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